Patrick McDowell definitely is aware of learn how to placed on a present. For his or her newest spectacle tonight within the South Financial institution studios of the Rambert Dance Firm, the designer collaborated with quite a few the troupe’s dancers to supply an immersive runway expertise that was cheekily titled “A Tragedy of Style.” It seems that was additionally the identify of Rambert’s first manufacturing in 1926: a radically ingenious ballet that spun a yarn of a doomed dressmaker who finally ends up impaling himself on his personal chopping scissors. “After discovering that, I went on a deeper dive into the archive, and the mission actually developed out of that,” mentioned McDowell.
Prints had been designed to incorporate images of the founder Marie Rambert’s dance sneakers, whereas garment luggage had been recreated in luxurious silks and Tencel fibers. With the assistance of McDowell’s sustainable wizardry, lots of the clothes featured upcycled classic silks sourced from factories in Italy, mycelium padding, and a handful of textiles sourced from inside Rambert itself—notably the closing look, delivered with suitably theatrical panache by one of many dancers, which was crafted from dozens of tulle skirts that had been languishing in a cabinet from a efficiency many a long time in the past.
And in a second of circularity—in each senses of the phrase—a bit from the gathering shall be discovering a brand new dwelling within the Rambert archives, to affix the opulent costumes that first sparked McDowell’s inspiration for the gathering. “Who is aware of,” mentioned McDowell. “Perhaps in one other 100 years, it’d encourage another person.”
